Cherokee Nation removes Confederate monuments from historic Capitol Square

Last updated Aug 06, 2020 10:39am
Share
Cherokee Nation count

Two Confederate monuments were lifted by crane and removed from the Cherokee Nation Capitol Square in Tahlequah, Oklahoma.

Cherokee Nation count

Cherokee Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin, Jr., watches as a monument is removed.

TAHLEQUAH, Okla.-Two Confederate monuments were lifted by crane and removed from the Cherokee Nation Capitol Square in Tahlequah Saturday as directed by Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin, Jr., who observed from a few feet away.

Both monuments were placed on the capitol square nearly a century ago when the property was a county courthouse owned by the state. The Cherokee Nation did not place the monuments.

"We've suffered for centuries with too many others telling our story for us as they see fit," Chief Hoskin said. "It's difficult to tell our story when we have non-Indian-driven monuments talking about the Confederacy, when they greet people as they come into our Cherokee Nation museum. It was time for a change."

A fountain memorializing confederate soldiers and Confederate General Stand Watie was dedicated in 1913 by the Daughters of the Confederacy and was situated directly in the center of the capitol square.

A second granite monument weighing 13,000 pounds also honored General Watie, who was last to surrender during the Civil War. The monument was dedicated in 1921 by the same organization.

Chief Hoskin said the Cherokee Nation is not erasing history, as the Civil War story needs to be told as well as the stories of pivotal figures such as General Watie. But he asserted that the story needs to be told through the Cherokee Nation lens, told appropriately, and told in a message that evokes unity.

"There are some painful references on these monuments, and I think we live in a time when we need to be mindful of the unity we have here on the courthouse Capitol Square. If there is one place at the Cherokee Nation that should stand for unity it should be here. After all, this is where we reconstituted our government and came back together as a people, and I think we need to do that today."

The Capitol Square in downtown Tahlequah houses the Cherokee Nation's most iconic and oldest building, the former Cherokee Nation Courthouse, which is now a Cherokee history museum.

The site has 13 different mismatched monuments, several with no ties to Cherokee history or the capitol square, since they were erected on the property before the Cherokee Nation reclaimed ownership in 1979.

"Today marks a new chapter in the history of the capitol square in which Cherokees, for the first time in over a century, can exercise control of the entirety of the square and let Cherokees, not non-Cherokees, tell our story more fully," Hoskin added.

It took about two hours for the monuments to be removed Saturday. They will now be stored by the Cherokee Nation. The tribe is working on more expansive plans for the capitol square, which include commissioning future art projects such as a monument dedicated to the Trail of Tears.

"A lot is going on in this country in terms of racial strife and the Cherokee Nation plays a role in healing, and this is one of the ways we can do that," Chief Hoskin said.

 

Most Popular


Chief Chat: Why I removed Confederate monuments from the Cherokee Capitol Grounds

Osiyo,

Across our country, we are having a new dialogue about how we experience race and the painful chapters of United States history, including the American Civil War. Recently, I oversaw the removal of two monuments from the historic Cherokee Nation Capitol Square in Tahlequah. The monuments failed to reflect the Cherokee Nation’s values of freedom and inclusion, and they run contrary to the idea that Cherokee Nation should have control of telling its own story.

We have long had public discussion about the potential removal of these monuments. I concede that recent events in the country caused me to reflect further on the matter. America is engaged in a dialogue on the subject of whether public monuments glorifying the Confederacy are appropriate. I think they are not, but that only begins to delve into the reasons I removed the monuments. The discussion goes even deeper, to the core of whether people should have the power to tell their own story.

Contrary to popular belief, the monuments, both relating to the Confederacy and Confederate General Stand Watie, are not “Cherokee” in terms of creation or origin. The monuments were set in place by a non-Cherokee organization, the Daughters of the Confederacy, in 1913 and 1921. This began less than a decade after Cherokee Nation lost ownership of our historic Capitol Square at Oklahoma statehood. The state owned the property, and it was controlled by the county government as a courthouse. Cherokee Nation, its government suppressed by the federal government, was not involved in the placement of the monuments.

What an insult to a great nation to have its Capitol taken and then adorned with monuments by those who seized it. It would take a half-century for Cherokee Nation to regain its full ability to self-govern and take back its Capitol Square. Yet, for the last century, one

of the most hallowed places in the Cherokee Nation—

a symbol of Cherokee unity, endurance and progress—was decorated based on the judgment of the state government, the county government and a non-Indian organization as they saw fit.

The days of Cherokees leaving it to others to tell our story are over. We have suffered for centuries with others telling our story for us and telling us which people, places and events should be glorified in monuments. I have committed much time and energy to giving our national story back to Cherokees. On that point, I will never yield.

Today, we have the power and resources to build our own monuments and memorials to significant people, places and events. We have exercised that power across Cherokee Nation in a way that has brought pride and unity to our tribe. You can see it in each of our public spaces. Through museums, books and online material, people can explore the Cherokee story. This includes a discussion of Stand Watie and the Civil War, as it is not possible to explore Cherokee history without understanding both.

Telling our own story allows us to tell it more fully and accurately. The Daughters of the Confederacy had as its mission the glorification of the Confederacy. The monuments were set in the midst of great racial strife in the country, including lynchings, race massacres and the enforcement of Jim Crow laws. To anyone with even a basic understanding of Cherokee Nation’s connection to the Civil War, the monuments did a poor job of depicting that pivotal era in Cherokee history. The monuments, bearing painful references to the Confederacy and glorifying the cause of the rebellion, detract from the spirit of unity and friendship that Cherokees today want to extend to each other and to the world. We can do better.

As for the monuments, we will work to find them a new and appropriate home.

Going forward we plan to develop more artistic spaces for Cherokees to better tell our story across the entirety of the Capitol grounds. For the first time in more than a century, the Cherokee Nation will take full control over the images and symbols depicted on our historic Capitol Square. As long as I am Chief, those symbols will reflect unity and inclusion, not divisiveness.

Wado,

Chuck Hoskin, Jr.

Principal Chief